Satanist: Cops kicked me

2003-02-13 18:51

Pretoria - Tattoo artist Robbie Classen told the Pretoria High Court on Thursday that police had tried "to kick a confession out of him", ignoring his protests that he was innocent.

Classen has denied guilt on 10 charges relating to the kidnapping, rape, sexual molestation and torture of a tiny blonde schoolgirl and her two young brothers in 2000.

He denied that he was a Satanist who had subjected the children to gruesome and depraved rituals. He said he only had superficial knowledge of the occult and had never sexually molested any children.

Classen, who sports tattoos over most of his body, including a tattoo of a crab on his penis, said he had "no clue" why the children would accuse him of such deeds and felt that he had simply been arrested because of his appearance.

All of the children had testified about a tattoo on his penis, but they differed about what the tattoo looked like and must have seen it on photographs or were told about it, he said.

Spider, fly, lion?

The girl had described the tattoo as a spider, one of her brothers said it was a fly and a lizard and her other brother told the court it was a lion.

Classen claimed he had not been warned of his rights when he was arrested or when he was interviewed by police.

A policewoman had tried to make him sign a statement, but he had refused because she would not allow him to read it first.

There were a lot of accusations, one policemen threatened to remove his body piercings with a pair of pliers and he was told to co-operate and point out to police "graves, bodies and photo equipment", which he knew nothing about, he said.

Classen said he had been through the "Brixton murder and robbery squad experience" before and knew that the police would stop at nothing if they wanted information from an individual.

The trial was postponed until April 7 for final argument.

- SAPA